MOSCOW CONDEMNS NATIONALIST 'VIRUS' IN 3 BALTIC LANDS

By ESTHER B. FEIN, Special to The New York Times

Published: August 27, 1989

MOSCOW, Aug. 26—
In its strongest response yet to the growing calls for independence in the Baltic republics, the Communist Party today condemned nationalist movements in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and declared that the agitation had caused alarm and hysteria and raised the prospect of ''civil conflict.''

Saying that ''things have gone far,'' the Central Committee of the Communist Party warned the restive republics that if the situation continued, their ''very existence could wind up in question.''

The ''virus of nationalism'' in the Baltics affects ''the vital interests of the entire Soviet people,'' the statement said, and if it continues, there will be ''a real threat of a civil conflict and mass street clashes which will involve grave consequences.'' [ Excerpts, page 18. ] 'Urgent Measures' Demanded ''The situation that has emerged demands a profound awareness, a realistic and serious appraisal and decisive, urgent measures to purge the process of perestroika in the Baltics of extremism, of destructive, harmful tendencies,'' the party leadership said.

The Central Committee statement, issued tonight and read in the opening 19 minutes of the main evening news program, Vremya, did not specify what urgent actions were being considered or whether such moves were already under way.

Ever since Government troops attacked and killed nationalist demonstrators in Soviet Georgia in April, people in the Baltics have feared that similar measures might be used against them if the Kremlin objected to their demands and methods. Gorbachev on Vacation

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is reported to be on vacation, and it was not known whether he initiated or supported today's hard-line statement.

Articles in the Communist Party newspaper Pravda and other national publications have been increasingly critical of the Baltics' demands for economic and political freedom. But today's statement marked the first time the party leadership had directly denounced the Baltic states for the stepped-up independence campaign.

The warning comes several days after mass demonstrations were held in the three Baltic republics, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stalin-Hitler pact that led to their annexation by the Soviet Union. Million Demonstrate

Over a million people were reported to have taken part on Wednesday in a 400-mile human chain linking Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in a symbol of solidarity and a call for a restoration of their ''independent statehood.''

Those demonstrations, the party leadership said, were trying ''to incite the peoples of the Baltic republics to secede from the Soviet Union.''

The Soviet Constitution guarantees the right of any republic to secede from the Soviet Union, but this has long been considered a symbolic right and one that would be vehemently resisted by Moscow.

The statement said that leaders of the republics were to blame for failing ''to contain the process'' and that some Communist Party leaders ''lost heart'' and ''began to play up to nationalist sentiments.''

Communist party and goverment officials in all three republics have been enthusiastic supporters of grass-roots political movements that have become ever bolder in their calls for complete independence from the Soviet Union, and many attended and spoke at Wednesday's demonstrations.

In an unusually strong condemnation of fellow Communists, the Central Committee accused these leaders, without identifying them, of failure ''to stem the negative tendencies, to redress the situation, to uphold the principled positions, to convince people of the harmfulness of the plans and practices of opposition forces.'' Lithuanian Report Condemned

The statement also strongly condemned a report issued this week by a Lithianian Parliament commission, which declared that Moscow had illegally occupied and annexed the Baltic republics in 1940. The commission was the first official body to directly challenge the legitimacy of Soviet rule in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The party leadership in Moscow said the Lithuanian action was ''directly linked with the separatist line which has been pursued in the past months with growing persistence and aggressiveness by certain forces in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.''

A secret protocol to the Soviet-Nazi nonaggression treaty signed on Aug. 23, 1939, and subsequent secret pacts between the two nations clandestinely divided Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence. Poland was divided between the two nations, and the Baltics, then independent states, were assigned to the Soviet Union. The Nazi attack on Poland that Sept. 1 started World War II.

The Soviet Army took up positions in the three republics during the war, held elections under the pressure of the military and forced the puppet parliaments to seek admission to the Soviet Union. Moscow Admits Secret Deal

After decades of denying the existence of the secret pact, Moscow now admits that the deal was made, but denies it had any bearing on the incorporation of the Baltic states.

The recent Soviet policies of a more candid view of history and politics and a more flexible approach to economics has greatly benefited the three Baltic republics. Chapters of their history, like the secret protocols, are being revealed officially, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been given, in principle, a go-ahead by Moscow's new Parliament to institute market-style economies.

But the Central Committee tonight accused people in the Baltics of abusing these policies for ''extremist'' goals.

''They step by step steered the course of affairs toward an alienation of the Baltic republics from the rest of the country,'' the statement said, adding, ''Their positions become more and more openly extremist and separatist.''